Special Number One was where the Imperial Family lived. And even though it was past midnight, the floating city was about to get very busy.
A signal had just been flashed to the small army of security forces stationed on the floating city: the Emperor was on the move; get to your positions. Within seconds, every roof, street, intersection, gate, and tower was lined with heavily armed Imperial troops. So many of these soldiers were materializing from their barracks that the combined shimmer of greenish electricity — always seen during a transport — gave the flying city an unusual emerald glow.
The alert had been sparked by a very simple thing: a light at the top of the Imperial Palace had switched from white to red. This meant that O'Nay, the Supreme Ruler of the Galaxy, was changing locations. He was considered a god to many, an omnipotent being who reigned over 80 percent of the Milky Way, an empire encompassing billions of star systems and trillions of planets. His realm was so vast and far-flung, no one was really sure just how many people were under his rule. Hundreds of trillions certainly. Probably more.
As such, O'Nay was much too important to move from one location to another without a great ceremony. These elaborate exercises involved hundreds of additional soldiers, officially known as Holy Palace Guards. Like the security troops around them, these soldiers were at the ready day and night, just in case O'Nay wanted to move.
As far as anyone could tell, O'Nay spent most of his waking hours at the top of the tower built above the gigantic Imperial Palace. This tower was five hundred feet high and was considered a very sacred place. There was a small room at the top, a very simple affair, as described by the few mere mortals who had seen the inside of it. It lacked even the most basic comforts, reportedly containing but a single wooden chair. It was here that the Emperor would sit for hours on end, gazing out the room's only window, thinking his deep thoughts.
He did come down occasionally, though, and that's when things could get buzzing on Special Number One. The assembled soldiers watched now as an eerie glow began descending the stairs from the tower. This was the odd greenish yellow haze that always marked the space immediately in front of and immediately behind the Emperor. In centuries past, it would have been called an aura. These days, it was known as the Holy Light.
It took more than ten minutes for the Emperor and his coterie of special Tower Guards to reach the bottom level of the Imperial Palace. The massive front door finally opened, and. O'Nay was spotted within. At the first sight of him, music started up. Lots of it. The sudden blare of synthesized trumpet sounds, thick with pomp and circumstance, quickly filled the grand concourse. Then hundreds of small, white, mechanical flying things were released into the air. They fluttered across the grand walkway, then turned upward into the night sky, where they quickly disappeared forever.
A battalion of House Guards formed up in front of O'Nay now. Their helmets and ceremonial weapons gleamed with nearly the same intensity as the zaser beams atop the floating city's tallest spires. Even in Big Bright below, a sort of hush descended, as word was flashed that O'Nay was coming down from his tower.
As always, O'Nay himself seemed oblivious to all that was happening around him. He looked like a god: tall, sturdy, a full white beard and very long white hair that fell past his shoulders. He was wearing his usual long, flowing, emerald gown and had his gold green miter planted firmly on his head. In the center of this cone-shaped hat was the distorted image of a green three-leafed plant. This was the ancient symbol of the Specials, as the extended imperial family was known. It was one of the few things that had survived the three previous empires and the centuries of Dark Ages in between.
O'Nay looked out on the grand concourse and slowly raised his hand. The music became louder. It was here that he was turned over to the Concourse Guards, soldiers even more massive than his imposing Tower Guards. Quickly surrounded by four phalanxes containing one hundred soldiers each, the Emperor began crossing the esplanade, gliding along as usual about three feet above the ground, his troops marching in unison on all sides of him.
Once at the curb, O'Nay was met by another ceremonial army, the Holy Street Guards. With much weapons-slapping and boot clicking, they joined the head of the procession and led it through the empty, pristine streets of Special Number One. They eventually reached the plaza of the nearby Gold House, a building nearly as massive as the palace itself. Here still another contingent of ceremonial troops, the Plaza Guards, joined the ranks. The Emperor floated along with them, maintaining the same detached air as with the other marching units. Gliding across the plaza, he moved very smoothly within his emerald glow.
The Plaza Guards had the easiest mission of the night. They had to lead the burgeoning parade a mere hundred feet, the distance from the street curb to the front of the Gold House. Here, the Eternal O'Nay would be turned over to the Gold House Guards.
There was an orgy of lights flashing and saber rattling as this changing of the flags was made. The company of Plaza Guards then turned on their heels and marched off the hundred feet in reverse, stopping only when they reached the curb, where they lined up alongside their comrades and snapped to attention. All eyes were on the Emperor now as he glided not to the massive front door of the Gold House but to a smaller, less ornate one located off to the side. This room was known around the floating city as O'Nay's "favorite comfortable place."
He went through this door alone, shutting it tightly behind him. The thousands of troops remained at attention and waited. These things never took very long. Sure enough, not thirty seconds later, the door opened, and O'Nay glided out again.
Mission accomplished.
Now the whole ceremonial process had to be reversed. O'Nay was surrounded by the Gold House Guards, who turned him over to the Plaza Guards, who gave him over to the Holy Street Guards, who marched him back up to the Imperial Palace, where the Concourse Guards delivered him back to the Tower Guards. Through it all, the music continued to play and more and more white, furry, flying things were sent aloft.
Only after O'Nay disappeared back into the palace did the pageantry die down. His glow was seen ascending the stairs back to the top of the tower, to the small meditation room, which by all reports did not contain a "favorite comfortable place" for O'Nay. Finally, the glow reached its apex, and the single light at the top of the tower blinked back to white again.
That's when the music finally stopped, and any remaining flying things were returned to their holding area. All around the floating city, soldiers and guards were ordered at ease. Things went back to normal as well down in Big Bright City. O'Nay was back in his tower, and all was right with the Universe.
Back at the Gold House, the two soldiers posted closest to the small room that had been O'Nay's destination eased themselves into standing regular guard duty again.
After a while, one looked at the other and shrugged.
"My guess, it was just a tinkle," he said.
Farther down the floating city's main street, all the way to the bright southern edge of Special Number One, there was an extremely futuristic building known as Blue Rock.
This was the main operations center for the Space Forces, the largest of the Empire's trinity of military services. The job of the SF was to project the Empire's policies to the far reaches of the Galaxy. Comprised of the Navy, the Army, and Air Service, the Space Forces were the Emperor's front-line troops, nearly twenty billion in all, with millions of spacecraft under flag to get them where they wanted to go. The SF was also the Empire's senior service; its roots went back more than a thousand years, a history that had somehow survived the last two Dark Ages. As such, its members liked to think of it as the most professional of the Empire's military units.